


Ten Equals Eight

by oFFs



Series: Of Geniuses and Other Remarkable Individuals [2]
Category: Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, College Age Rhodey, Gen, James "Rhodey" Rhodes is a Good Bro, Platonic Bed Sharing, Stand Alone, Stark Brothers AU, Teen Arno Stark, Teen Tony Stark, but fits into another universe, just not officially, octal, rhodey is totally the other older brother
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:34:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27797005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oFFs/pseuds/oFFs
Summary: Predictably, Tony cannot be trusted to take care of himself over a long weekend. Lucky for him, his older brother cares enough to check in to make sure he doesn’t die of a caffeine overdose or something. Rhodey just wants to sleep in his own bed.
Relationships: Arno Stark & Tony Stark, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Arno Stark & Tony Stark
Series: Of Geniuses and Other Remarkable Individuals [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2019152
Comments: 4
Kudos: 30





	Ten Equals Eight

**Author's Note:**

> This story is a standalone and not a direct follow-up to "The Stand-In." It is set in the same universe, though, just several years earlier. The follow-up to that story is coming, but I just figured I'd give you all a glimpse of what the boys were like when they were younger. Enjoy!

Arno used the spare key to enter the dorm room and stopped short at the sight that greeted him. The place was a disaster (poor Rhodey) and all evidence suggested that Tony must have been up for at least a couple of days. There were equations scribbled everywhere: on papers taped to the walls, on scraps scattered across every horizontal surface, and on the windows as well as three rolling whiteboards that must have been ‘borrowed’ from some classroom.

“My god,” the seventeen-year-old declared, “you really can’t be left alone for a long weekend. Rhodey is gonna kill you when he gets back.”

For his part, Tony’s only response was a grunt of acknowledgment.

Shaking his head, Arno turned his attention to whatever it was Tony was writing out. His brows slowly drew together the more he read. “Uh, Tony, not a single one of these equations are right. Which, considering it’s you we’re talking about, means either you’ve been abducted and replaced with an idiot or you’ve suffered a stroke or something.”

Tony paused in the middle of the equation he was working through to scrawl _“10=8”_ into an empty space on one of the other boards.

Arno frowned and looked back at the equations. “Oh,” he said, expression clearing. “Right. And why are you doing Base 8 math? What are you working on?”

His brother only shrugged, but Arno was used to speaking Tony when the younger teen went all ‘beautiful mind’ and forgot to use his words.

“You know, there are other options for curing boredom, you know. One of them is actually sleeping when you’re exhausted instead of drinking obscene amounts of coffee and…” Arno trailed off to pick up one of the empty cans among the to-go boxes littering the room, “energy drinks. Seriously, these things will stunt your growth. You’re already on the short side.”

This time, the fifteen-year-old stopped writing long enough to turn and give his older brother a glare.

“Yeah, I know, I know––you’re just as tall as I am. Put down the marker, mini-me. I’m sure it’s at least fifty hours past your bedtime.” Arno took the dry erase marker from Tony’s hand and herded the younger Stark towards his bed. “You know Rhodey’s gonna make you clean up this mess, right?”

Tony grumbled and complained the whole time, but Arno eventually got his over-tired brother wrestled into bed and buried under the covers. His protests died about the moment his head hit the pillow. Sighing, Arno turned to face the rest of the room.

“I guess I could try to get some of this put away.”

#

“Man, what the hell?” Rhodey said aloud when he got in that night. 

He’d flipped on the light to find his dorm was a disaster zone. It looked like a tornado had torn through the math department before vomiting all over his room. Octal equations were scrawled all over in Tony’s handwriting, coffee cups and empty takeout containers littering the whole place. A second set of equations had been scribbled into every free bit of space in an entirely different hand, these in regular old Base 10 math. From what Rhodey could decipher, Arno’s equations had nothing to do with Tony’s.

“I am literally about to be a rocket scientist and I don’t do crap like this. This is the last time I go home for a long weekend when I know he’s staying at school,” he told himself as he picked his way across the room.

“Go to college, everyone tells you. Get a career. It’ll be great,” the twenty-year-old groused, dropping his duffel bag beside his dresser. “Nobody warns you you’ll end up adopting two punk-ass kids with too many smarts and not enough common sense.”

“You love us,” Arno mumbled from where he was apparently laying on Rhodey’s bed.

“The hell I do,” scoffed Rhodey. He changed into a pair of pajama bottoms before walking over to prod the lump in the middle of his mattress. “Get out of my bed, jerk. You don’t even go here, anymore.”

Arno’s answer was to flop over onto his side facing the wall. Rhodey heaved a long-suffering sigh and rolled his eyes heavenward.

“Fine,” he said, climbing under the blankets, “but if you drool on me again, I am making you do my laundry. And don’t think you’re getting out of here until after you help clean up this mess. You hear?”

The brunet hummed in what better have been agreement, if he knew what was good for him. Rhodey shook his head.

“I don’t know why I put up with either of you,” he claimed. 

Which was a lie––he knew precisely why he did it. Arno and Tony were the closest thing Rhodey had to having brothers. He wouldn’t trade either of them for the world.

They were still going to clean up their own damned mess, though.


End file.
